DHL adds Anchorage flights

ANCHORAGE (AP) -- DHL Worldwide Express will add new international cargo routes through Anchorage, using the city as a pivot point between Asia and its U.S hub in the Midwest.

Beginning Monday, the company will make two additional stopovers six days per week at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport. The flights will be both U.S.-bound and Asia-bound, said DHL spokeswoman Tracy Egan.

The new flights are part of DHL's alliance with Northwest Airlines Cargo.

DHL does not have its own planes coming through Anchorage, said Charlie Pannone, DHL's service manager for the area. Instead, it has 30 flights a day on commercial carriers with Alaska, Era, Continental and now Northwest.

''It's not going to be a huge impact on the airport,'' Pannone said. ''Northwest already runs a pretty big cargo operation out on their ramp.''

Although the two flights don't constitute a spike in the total number of flights in either DHL's or Northwest's operations, it is an addition and not a loss.

Under a multiyear agreement, Northwest will launch service out of Cincinnati, DHL's hub location, to Far East destinations in Japan, China, the Philippines and elsewhere.

The additional flights will speed up delivery for DHL customers in Anchorage and those in the Lower 48 east of Denver, Egan said.

DHL will have priority access to space on two newly acquired Boeing 747s. According to its Web site, Northwest is the largest freighter aircraft operator among U.S. combination airlines, deploying 12 747-200 freighters exclusively to the Pacific.